Hello everyone! Sorry once again for the loooong wait! But, as I always say= 'Better late than never!', right?

Many thanks for your support and reviews! They warm our hearts and keep us going, so after reading this, please leave your review! It means the WORLD to us!

Disclaimer: neither of us owns the story nor the characters, except of course the OCs.

Marissa and I would like to dedicate this chapter to our Camp Bestie Sophie (we love you girl3), who has been our best reader and reviewer throughout this whole, rather 'unexpected' journey! ;)

So, Sophie, this is for you! Many kisses from your friends who are always with you, no matter how many miles seperate us!

Elsa's POV

They started making their way towards the magnificent palace through a cleared path. Elsa noticed all the strange and beautiful flowers and trees, their warm colors that couldn't be compared to anything she ever saw, and doubted she would see again.

No one spoke, as they were all awe-struck by the amazing view, even Thorin and Dwalin who, even though they tried to hide it, they were just as impressed as the others. Elsa was walking next to Bilbo, who just like her, had the look that said 'I've read about it, heard about it, maybe seen pictures of it. But I have NEVER actually seen it!'. She was pretty sure that Nora had the same look on her face, but she did not dare turn her head to look for her friend, for she was determined not to take her eyes off the site that was unfolding before her eyes.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" she whispered in awe.

"That's an understatement!" Bilbo replied kindly with a smile on his lips. Elsa agreed with a nod and continued walking in silence.

Now, they were ready to cross the bridge which was made (from what it looked like) of polished marble. It was tempting, yes, but her slight fear of the flowing water and the rocks that were about 20 feet from where she stood, overwhelmed her.

"Fear of height?" a familiar, gentle voice said next her ear, making a shiver run down her spine.

"Fear of falling!" she replied to Fili as she turned to face him, a smile blossoming on her lips.

Without even making eye contact, Fili slid his hand inside hers and they walked side by side never letting her as much as look down. Elsa felt an inexplicable warm inside her, as she tightened her grip on Fili's calloused hand.

Little did she know, that Nora was right beside her, smirking like crazy and doing her 'happy' dance in her head.

After crossing the bridge, they passed through the 'gate' was which undeniably the most delicate thing she ever laid her eyes on. The detail that was put on both statues was really fantastic! After a few steps and still holding hands with Fili they were welcomed by an obvious acquaintance of Gandalf, an Elf that she always failed to remember his name. Not to mention that the constant whispering between the dwarves made it hard to concentrate!

"My lord Elrond is not here." She heard the elf state.

"Not here?" Gandalf asked in a mysterious voice. "Where is he?" he asked after a pause.

That's when a horn was heard. The impact of its sound was instant: all dwarves, hobbit and humans turned their heads toward the source of the sound. There were about a dozen of horseback riders (or more) coming towards them, which caused Thorin to shout 'DUL BECKAR' which could be translated as 'Dwarves in arms!'.

"Close ranks!" he yelled, and Elsa felt herself being pushed by Fili inside a protective circle, which consisted her, Nora and Bilbo as those who were protected and the dwarves as protectors.

The next hour passed as if it was a movie in a theatre: Elrond came, welcomed them to his home, and offered them food and a place to spend the night and rest.

One thing was sure: this dinner was one she would remember ALL her life!

(please see Author Note in the end of the chapter! Thank you! :-*.)

Kili's POV

Kili found himself unable to sleep that night. Despite all the running and fighting of the past two days he seemed to be quite reckless. He kept on turning around his self-made bed but sleep just didn't take him.

He was about to turn around for another failed attempt when he spotted a figure sitting in the edge of the large window. Seeing that he wasn't the only one suffering from insomnia and having nothing better to do he decided to leave his pointless attempts and join this person.

When he was close enough to get a better look he smiled mentally, praising himself for his decision. Because in the edge of the window was sitting Nora, hugging her legs and with her gaze fixed in the night sky.

He went to stand beside her, placing his hands on the cold marble of the window and leaning on it. She didn't do or say anything to acknowledge his presence.

"So what is it that keeps you awake at this hour?" she asked after a moment of silence, without turning to face him.

"I could ask you the same," he replied turning to look at her. Every thought of sleep was long forgotten.

She looked from the sky to him and his eyes met hers. Something was troubling her, for that he was sure, but what?

"Home," was all she said, answering his thoughts and then she looked again at the sky.

"I see," he replied, just to say something, but after that there was a long bit of silence. Kili didn't mind it for it was a comfortable one.

After a while she turned to face him. She opened her mouth as if to say something but she must have thought better of it. He eyed her curiously. It was obvious that she wanted to say something so why was she so hesitant? She had never been like that to the others in the short time he knew her.

"Do you ever miss it?" she finally asked softly. "Your home I mean," she quickly added, in a hesitant tone-he noted- careful as if not to offend him.

"Yes," he replied his gaze fixed to nowhere. Normally this wasn't a subject he was keen on discussing but maybe he should make an exception for her. "Life back at the Blue Mountains wasn't much, but at least we had a place to stale, a place to call home," he told her.

"If we succeed you'll probably never see it again," she insisted. "Won't you miss it?"

"Not really, as I said it wasn't much anyway. It's not the place that I miss, but the people, which I'm going to see again one day," he said finally understanding what all this meant. "But this all isn't about me is it?"

"What do you mean? Of course…"

"What gotten you so homesick Nora?" he asked sounding way more serious than he normally would.

She sighed, her gaze was distant and her thoughts probably back to her home.

"I have a friend," she started. "Her name is Sophie. We're very close. Not as much as Elsa, but still very close. Today she had her birthday and I missed it," she explained.

"There will be other times to celebrate with her…"

"That's the thing." she cut him. "I don't even know if I will ever see her again," she said bitterly. "This thought came to my mind during dinner and it haunts me ever since." Her jaw now was trembling her efforts of concealing her true emotions too much.

Kili froze. He couldn't do anything but to look at her. Truth be told, this was the first time she spoke to him of her concerns and he didn't know what to say to say to her. Let alone that this was one of the few times that she actually spoke to him! He wasn't good with words, he had never been. So he decided to do something else instead, make her feel comfortable. He usually seemed to be good at that.

"That thought crosses my mind too. Although, I'm not sure whether that's a good or bad thing though." he said and smiled when he saw that it worked. She gave a light smile, just enough to make her feel good. She knew that getting so worked up over losing ONE birthday party would cause some people to question her sanity, but she was sure that people with a special bond to their friends would understand her. The problem was that she doubted if any of the people she met would understand that kind of 'girlish' thinking.

Well, of course there was Elsa, but she couldn't talk to her about it. She couldn't and she wouldn't! She just wasn't ready, and she also thought that such a petty and childish complaint would completely stand out in a place where the main goal was to reclaim a lost homeland!

"Well, it's a common saying of my people: show me your friend to tell you who you are," Nora finally said, "Although, I'm not quite sure that's true. After all, Sophie is very different from me."

"So how is she?" Kili asked.

"She's very kind and fun to be around. She's quite childish and whines all the time, which can be a bit annoying especially to those who don't know her," she explained with a keen smile on her face. "But she's such a good listener, always there for you and most of all she has a pure heart."

Maybe too pure! she thought to herself as she thought of fun times when she, Elsa and Sophie went to camp at summers…!

"She sounds nice," Kili commented, feeling his own heart warm a little bit at how the black-haired girl could give such a description, that made him want to meet her friend!

"She is. Actually she's one of the best people I've ever met," she agreed. "What about your friends?"

"I have a feeling you would like them," he told her. Truth be told, he didn't know. If Nora wasn't really comfortable talking to him, then his friends would cause her to run for the hills, due to her embarrassment. They were just too blunt for her tastes, he knew it.

"If they are as charming as you are…" she blunted obviously without thinking. She stopped herself when she realized what she said. She muttered something under her breath in that language she used. Her cheeks now had a slightly reddish shade that made her pale face look like a tomato with eyes in the dim light.

"You think I'm charming?" he asked. For some reason he enjoyed seeing her blush. It sure made her look adorable.

"What if I do?" she asked, her voice challenging and playful at the same time, a gleam in her eyes, her previous thoughts almost forgotten. Almost…

"Then I would tell you that I think you look lovely when you blush." Nora's eyes grew wider now blushing even more. She said something, probably sweared (judging by her facial expression), in that language of hers.

"Well played," she admitted nodding.

"I'm just stating the obvious," he insisted making her roll her eyes.

And after that they just sat there, in a balcony in Rivendell, talking and sharing memories. They both needed this.

Kili was surprised to realize that he found Nora's company much more enjoyable that he ever thought he would. Her voice was smooth and soft and her eyes sparkled every time she laughed.

"It's late," he stated a lot later when she let out a small yawn. "We should get as much sleep as we can."

"You're right. God knows when we'll get a good night sleep again," she agreed. She turned to leave but stopped.

She turned to face him and, much to his surprise, she reached and hugged him. It was a quick and friendly gesture but enough to cause an undetectable shiver down her spine. Well, it was undetectable to Kili. She hoped…

"Thank you," she said once she pulled away.

"You're welcome," he replied smiling.

"Goodnight Kili."

"Goodnight Nora," he said. After that he went to sleep with a smile on his face.

Elsa's POV

Next morning:

"Nora pay attention," Elsa exclaimed with a distressed look inher eyes. The two girls were currently in an open space having this archery lesson that Nora sweared she would let Elsa give her.

They were just outside the palace grounds, next to a little waterfall, just outside the woods. The woods that, by now, Elsa wanted to run to, screaming about her screwed up luck that her friend wouldn't concentrate.

"I'm paying attention," Nora argued defending herself.

"No, you're not," Elsa shot back. "You aimed at the tree next to the one I told you to aim and you missed this one as well," she added. "How is that even possible?" she completed her bitching, raising a questioning eyebrow and her hands to her hips towards an unknown viewer.

Nora had been to her own little world since he woke up this morning and she didn't know what her friend was daydreaming about. Which pissed Elsa off. Like reaaalllyyy bad!

"Just tell me already," she insisted.

"I don't have anything to say," she said with a stupid smile on her smile, "Oh ok, I'll tell you," she added when she saw Elsa's bitchface look that said 'I-know-you-and-you-can't-hide-your-secrets-from-me-so-SPIT!'. She told her everything, to the last detail, making her smile. At last Nora was speaking with him. It was about damn time!

"Well, who would have thought that Sophie would be the solution to all your problems," said Elsa smiling. "Oh, and by the way that would be a good time to admit that you like him," she added smirking.

"I do not like him,' protested Nora, over-pronouncing the 'do not' part, which made it hard even for her to believe herself. Every thought of archery was long forgotten by now.

"Yes, you do. You like him so bad and you know it," she insisted.

"No I don't," Nora shot back, pretending to be testing the sharpness of an arrow.

Elsa wouldn't buy it for a second. Why did Nora deny her feelings? It's not like she did something wrong! Besides, here we weren't talking about serious relationship, they could just have their fun, have a few laughs and some interesting chats and then that could be it. They would part as friends. That's how all of Elsa's relationships always finished.

Not that she was the slutty kind of girl, only thinking about how to have fun with boys, and then throw them away like broken toys. No, she was quite the opposite! At times she felt that she could actually have something with someone (at least as much of a 'something' a teenage girl could have), but every single time she got burned. Reaally burned… Which led her to her party-animal life, a life of unending heart games, fooling around, and suppressing her emotions so bad that resulted to her nightmares!

But none of this made any sense now! She could make a brand new start, at a brand new place. She could change her fate and receive a chance to gain redemption from herself, for she knew that if she didn't forgive herself for all the things she did, no one truly would.

The green-eyed girl was pulled away from her thoughts, now longer wanting them to mess her head more than they already had. She quickly put her game face on, instead of the moody expression that she wore for the past minutes, and gave Nora, who hadn't noticed her mood change, a quirky smile.

She would get her friend to admit her feelings, whether she liked it or not!

That's all for now folks! Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did whe we wrote it!

Author's Note: If you noticed, I've cut the dinner scene, and I'm about to tell you why:me and Nora always joked around about how to write this particular scene and when I realised how many words it would be, I just couldn't do it, because it would seem a little bit awkward, stuck in this chapter, and TOO much filler-ish... That's why I'm planning to write a shortened version of a chapter of the dinner would go, in the next chapter, you know: for fun (If we could rate it, it would DEFINATELY go as 'humor'!"

Please be kind and leave a review, so that we can learn your thoughts on how the story goes!

Sophie, if you read this, we would like to say how much we love you! We love you, your smurf height and the fact that you are disgusted with everything romance-related! Keep on being you mellon nin! :-*